was his unworthy Present repay'd But the Abettors of the Court of Rome believe with great reason that they have however gain'd a main Point that there has been nothing positively done against a Work presented to the whole Clergy Where the Doctrine of the authority of a Council above a Pope which is the prime foundation of the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the first Article of the Pragmatick Sanction is every-where styl'd Heretical and Schismatical though it has been decided for a Catholick Truth by no less then two General Councils Where the Council of Basil so rever'd of all France is rent and torn the most outragiously in the world and that in a time when Popes have declar'd it for Oecumenical Where a trifling Scribbler imperiously presumes to decide a difference upon which the Church would never yet pronounce making those to pass for Anti-popes who possess'd the Seat in Avignon during the Schism who are yet the onely ones which France has acknowledg'd though God himself seems to have been willing that this Question should have remain'd undecided since he has permitted very holy Persons to maintain the parties of both these Popes Saint Catharine that of Urban and S. Peter of Luxemburg that of Clement from whom he receiv'd even his Cardinal's Hat as S. Vincent Ferrier who also adhered to the Avignon Popes Where by an abominable Lie they impute to Charles the Seventh that he knew the Gallican Church had made a detestable Schism by pronouncing an impious Sentence in behalf of Clement the VIIth against Urban the VIth Where the Pragmatical Sanction which was contriv'd at Bourges following the Decrees of the Council of Basil by the French Bishops which King Charles the VIIth had assembled there with the Princes Lords and great Persons of the Kingdom of all degrees and qualities is unworthily styl'd the Opprobrium of the King because it declares the Pope inferiour to a Council many waies limits his power and re-establisheth Canonical Elections Where the Mandate de Providendo Expectative graces Reservations Regresses and other like Abuses so justly condemn'd by the Council of Basil and by the whole French Church are maintain'd as legitimate Rights from this strange pretence of a Bull of Eugenius the IVth That the Church of Rome does what she pleases with all Church-Dignities without wrong to any man because she may alledge this word of the Holy Gospel Friend I doe thee no wrong is it not lawful for me to doe what I will with mine own and that the same Pope writing to Alphonsus King of Portugal saies That the free disposition of all Churches appertains to the Apostolical See and that the Popes dispose of them as best they like to which even Kings and Princes submit themselves Where the most Sacred Canons of the Church are so subdued to the Pope's will that he makes a Pope writing to a King of France to say That 't is a ridiculous thing to alledge them to him or demand of him their observation as if he knew nothing of them whereas if he acted aganst the Canons we are not to believe that 't was done out of ignorance but because it pleases him to have it so That he is so far Master that according to his pleasure he might not onely interpret suspend and mitigate them but alter and abolish them likewise as pleased his fansy The whole Book is stuffed with like excesses and greater then these too notwithstanding the fautors of these pernieious Opinions have this advantage that no body having complain'd of them they will one day take this silence for a tacit Approbation beside the gain which they receive when they who would be learned in the Church-History studying it in these Books shall at the same time suck in all these dangerous Maxims Nor have they less perverted the other source of Ecclesiastical Science to wit the study of the Councils The last Collector of them Binnius being but a small Copier of Baronius Bellarmine and Suarez who has stuffed his Notes with all that he thought proper to inspire these new Opinions And what is altogether prodigious is that whereas the King of Spain has never permitted that any man should print in his Dominions any passage of Baronius's Annals prejudicial to his pretences they have in the Louvre it self printed the Collection of the Councils of Binnius and that the Iesuites who have ever had all the government of this Royal Press have left there in the life of Boniface the VIIIth these outragious words against all France Philippum pulchrum Galliae Regem justè excommunicavit This Pope did justly excommunicate Philip the Fair King of France As much as to say that all France was Schismatical in that Age for opposing as she did the Excommunication as judging it very unjust and appealing to the future Council and that she yet continues so for having never since chang'd her opinion You see in the mean time what the Iesuites think fit to print in the King's house under his own nose and at his charges that so they may give the Enemies of France the advantage to reproach her for owning in this period the justice of an Excommunication of one of her Kings against which she has heretofore so vigorously opposed herself The Abridgment of the Councils by Coriolanus printed at Paris and revised by a Doctor of the Faculty is yet in some sort worse all the contrary Maxims to the Liberty of the Gallican Church being set at the Head of the Book as if they were so many Catholick Opinions Nor is there any thing better to be hop'd for from that new Edition of the Councils which they are undertaking now at Paris if the Iesuites continue Masters seeing we find well enough by the Plan which Father L' Abbé has caus'd to be printed that besides all Binnius's Notes if any thing be added it shall be rather more and more to ruine the Liberties of the Gallican Church then to defend them and in effect we see that whereas in Binnius the Council of Basil is call'd Concilium Oecumenicum ex parte reprobatum a General Council in part reprov'd Father L' Abbé in his new project totally suppresses this quality of Oecumenick by simply calling it Basileense Concilium though he be exceedingly exact in giving the title of Oecumenick to all the other General Councils and even to those also which as yet France has never acknowledg'd for such as that of Florence for instance which he styles Florentinum Oecumenicum sive Universale Concilium and that of Lateran under Iulius the II d and Leo the Xth which he calls Lateranense quintum Oecumenicum seu Universale decimumseptimum You see how little they respect the judgment of the Gallican Church degrading the Councils which our Ancestors have ever had in such singular veneration as that of Basil and magnifying those which our Fathers would never receive for Oecumenical as that of Florence concerning which the
over Kings the other that his Infallibility in matters of Fact takes away all means from the Kings they please to depose to complain of so rigorous a Sentence For the first 't is an easie matter to convince all the world of it nor ought we to imagine it a Consequence held onely by those who profess themselves enemies to the Iesuites Doctrine and which the Iesuites disavow 't is a Consequence which they themselves derive from it which they every-where acknowledge must needs follow and which does so indeed naturally and of necessity For Popes as Iesuites themselves have learn'd us have so many waies decided that they have power to degrade Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms when-ever they judge it for the interest of Religion that if to be Catholick one is oblig'd to consider all that Popes say in their Chair that is by their Bulls as Decisions of infallible authority and Oracles pronounc'd even by Christ himself Kings their Ministers and Parliaments must either renounce the quality of Catholick or else tamely acknowledge that Kings are Sovereigns independent in respect of their own Subjects and other Princes but nothing so in regard of the Pope but that he has power to make them descend from their Throne and to resolve them into their simple Originals so as exercising a Royalty superiour to theirs it may be said of his Empire as an heathen Poet said of that of God Omne sub regno graviore regnum est All this is an infallible consequent of Infallibility as the Iesuites well prove For who can chuse but believe that Popes have the power to depose Kings if once he be persuaded that their Decisions are so many Articles of Faith when it shall be shew'd him that Gregory the VIIth has decided it in express terms in a Council held at Rome Anno 1067 according to Onuphrius Baronius and all the Iesuites Quòd Papae liceat Imperatores deponere quòd à Fidelitate iniquorum subditos potest absolvere Whence Lessius the Iesuite concludes supposing the Principle of Infallibility That this Doctrine is no problematick Doctrine but a constant Truth not to be deny'd without violation of our very Faith We must absolutely believe says he that this Doctrine viz. that the Pope may depose Kings is an undoubted truth and not such as we may believe what we please of but such an one as is intirely certain not to be contradicted without wounding our Faith And this I prove first Because these Propositions are defin'd in proper terms in the Roman Synod under Gregory the VIIth where it is affirm'd that the Pope may depose Emperours and absolve the Subjects of wicked Princes from their Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity Now a Definition made by a Pope in Council is matter of Faith This is clear now without mincing nor can it be more expresly declar'd that the power to depose Kings is a necessary consequent of Infallibility so as those Iesuites must needs be very impudent who shall after this dare to affirm that they are their Enemies who derive this sequel from their Doctrine The Iesuite Cardinal Bellarmine under the feign'd name of Sculkenius writing against Widrington proves in the same manner by this Gregorian Decree that the Pope's Superiority over Kings is an Article of Faith 'T is an Heresie saies he to affirm that the Pope as Pope and ex jure divino has not the power to depose Secular Princes of their States as oft as the publick good or some urgent necessity of the Church does require it I prove this Conclusion An Opinion becomes heretical when its contradictory is de Fide But it is de Fide that the Pope has power to depose Princes since it has been defin'd and concluded by Gregory the VIIth in a Roman Council where it saies expresly That the Pope may depose an Emperour Now who can deny this Conclusion that holds but the Principle which is That what has been defin'd and concluded by a Pope is de Fide Is not this Argument of the Cardinal invincible supposing the Maxime to be true By consequent then who can doubt but that according to the Iesuites opinion and the truth it self the power of deposing Kings is in the Pope a certain Consequence of his Infallibility The same Gregory the VIIth has so often decided the same Point that no man questions his pretence of making it an Article of Faith as may yet be seen in the Bull of the Deposition of the Emperor Henry the IVth made likewise in Council where addressing his speech to S. Peter and S. Paul he thus expostulates Now therefore exert and vindicate your power O great and most holy Princes of the Apostles that all the world may take notice and acknowledg that if you can bind and loose in Heaven you can also on Earth dispose of Empires of Kingdoms Principalities and Marquisates in summe of all mens goods and fortunes whatsoever by taking them away from those who deserve them not and by bestowing them on others For if you judge things Spiritual shall we believe you have not the power to judge of Temporal and Secular Let all the Kings and Princes of the Age learn what your grandeur is and your power and not dare to despise the Commandments of your Church and be sure to leave such prompt and lasting marks in the judgment which you exercise against Henry that his ruine be not attributed to the fate of arms or fortuitous accidents of War but to your sole and almighty power In consequence of this he denounc'd to the Emperor as from God that he should never win battel But if Popes are infallible according to the Iesuites in actions past 't is certain at least that they are not in those which are to come For never did Prince gain so many remaining Victor in more then 50 pitch'd Battels and having at the very first slain the person whom his Holiness had design'd to make Emperor in his place I could recount a number more of Passages relating to the same Pope where he argues for the same Doctrine as visibly founded in the Scripture and annex'd to the Papal dignity For 't is not imaginable that he should pretend onely this right over Emperors because the Popes had so much contributed to the re-establishment of the Western Empire On the contrary 't is perspicuous that his pretence was over all Kings and that it was built on that Supposition of his viz. that the power of the Keys contain'd in it the Temporal Superiority which made him set upon the Crown he sent to Rodulphus Usurper of the Empire this Latin Verse Petra dedit Petro Petrus Diadema Rodulpho To shew that he believ'd he had power to dispose of Kingdoms by a right pretended to be given S. Peter by Iesus Christ himself 'T is likewise on the same basis he threatned Alphonsus King of Arragon to stir up his Subjects against him if he gave him not speedy satisfaction concerning a certain
which they made believe they would keep them and maugre these groundless exceptions carry their corrupt principles to all their natural consequences So as there is nothing able to oppose the funest effects of this Doctrine which subjects Kings to a forein Power whiles they permit this double Infallibility of Fact and Right to subsist from which 't is impossible to divorce it I very well know that there are some who seek several pretexts to charm the vigilance of Kings and their Ministers that so they may not perceive how this Doctrine of Infallibility is prejudicial to States One of these Pretences is the affirming that this Infallibility relates to Faith and Doctrine onely which are things Spiritual and that have nothing of common with the Temporals of Kings and the rights of their Crowns But there is nothing more unreasonable then this adulterate Colour For 't is true that indeed this temporal is not of Faith it self nor is the Doctrine the immediate Object of Infallibility But one cannot without Heresie deny that it may not be the subject and matter of Faith since 't is an Article of Faith establish'd both by Gospel and the Apostles that we ought to pay Tribute to Caesar which is a temporal thing and that we owe Obedience to Temporal Princes not onely to escape the punishment which they may inflict on us if we transgress but because we are in Conscience also oblig'd to it Non solùm propter iram sed etiam propter Conscientiam So as to persuade Kings that their Temporal is so far remote from Faith that it can be no matter of Faith is to dissolve and break the most sacred bond which unites their Subjects to their Empire to wit that of Conscience and Religion Faith is in it self a thing intirely spiritual and divine but that does no way hinder things humane and temporal from being very often both the subject and matter of it Warre is a secular thing yet 't is matter of Faith to know whether a Christian Prince may make warre And the Anabaptists erre in matter of Faith when they maintain that it is unlawful The power which Magistrates have to put Malefactors to death is a temporal thing and yet it belongs to Faith to decide whether Iesus Chirst has left this power to Christians or no and the same Anabaptists who deny it are esteem'd Hereticks by the Church Usury is a temporal thing yet is it matter of Faith to resolve whether or no it be a sin In like manner the Power of Kings is temporal but it concerns Faith to determine whether the power of the Keyes which Iesus Christ has given to S. Peter does extend to the breaking of that Obligation and Tie which Subjects have to their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Allegiance It concerns the interpretation of the words of I. Christ and by consequent has relation to Faith It imports the extent of the power that Iesus Christ has given the Pope as his Vicar which we can know nothing of but by divine revelation preserv'd in the Scriptures and by Tradition and by consequence it is matter of Faith It is no way then to be doubted but the Question whether the Pope have any right to punish Princes with temporal pains and to devest them of their States by virtue of that Authority pretended to be given to S. Peter is no concernment of Faith and therefore 't is in earnest a mere mockery to persuade Kings that the Pope's Infallibility does not extend to them whenas in truth there are none whom it so nearly concerns as they since Popes having so often decided this Right to be theirs if once the people be suffered to hold them infallible as to what they determin touching Faith none can hinder them from acknowledging also that they do not erre in their explication of the words of the Gospel touching the Primacy of S. Peter as of an Empire and Monarchy which extends it self even over the Temporals of Kings But besides this the question is not of what the thing is in truth but what 't is in the opinion of the Iesuites and that the strive to infuse into the World seeing from thence it is the ill effects proceed which this unlucky Doctrine may produce Errour and Superstition being infinitely more capable then either Truth or Religion to engage an abus'd people to Insurrections and disorders more nefarious Now the Iesuites as we have already seen maintain that this Infallibility of the Pope reaches even to the making their Sovereignty over Princes an Article of Faith It is of Faith say Bellarmine and Lessius that the Pope may depose Kings because Pope Gregory the VIIth has decided it and that the Decision of a Pope is a point of Faith It were to take away all humane Reason to hinder men from thus arguing and by consequent to sleep on the point of a Precipice to suffer the Doctrine of Infallibility to creep into a State from whence it is impossible but the other must needs spring For having once permitted the people to be season'd with this Opinion and that they are but accustom'd to receive all that Popes pretend in their Bulls as well concerning matters of Right as of Fact as if Iesus Christ himself had pronounc'd it if a Pope please to apply the Infallibility acknowledg'd to be in him for the determining as they have frequently done that by virtue of the power which Iesus Christ has given him to bind and loose whatsoever is on Earth he has power to depose Kings and absolve their Subjects from their Fidelity and that such a King merits to be depos'd it is not to be thought 't will prove so easie a matter to defend ones self from these Fulminations by altering the minds of the people in a moment and persuading them that he whom they took to be then so infallible is now no such thing or is not at least in that matter that is to say that he is infallible when what he affirms does not concern us but ceases to be so when it imports us he should not be so This were to make an ill estimate of the mindes of men and of the force which custome has over them to suffer one's self to be dazzled with these vain confidences Those Opinions which do by little and little establish their authority in the minds of men are weak and tender in their infancy and beginning nor is it then so difficult a matter to extirpate them but when once time has rooted and confirm'd them they get dominion of Reason and discover a tyrannous look against which it dares not so much as lift up its eyes Capable they are to precipitate it into all manner of excess and make men violate the rules of very Nature and the most sacred obligations of civil Society especially when they happen to be Opinions which possess the spirit by the way of Religion For men being once persuaded and with reason that they
who should doubt or not believe what has not been decided but by a Pope should neither be accus'd of Errour or Temerity provided he did not contradict the Pope publickly and with Scandal Behold here the very first breach which has been made at least in the Sorbon against its ancient Doctrine But in the mean time this has not hinder'd those very Persons who incourag'd this Doctor and that were ingag'd by Interest with the Court of Rome to reject this personal Infallibility of the Pope whenever they had any regard of their reputation amongst learned men This is evident by Cardinal Perron who in his Reply to the King of Great Britain l. 6. p. 1083. expresly acknowledges that the onely expedient to determine Disputes of Religion with a certainty of Faith is by a General Council Were the Service saies he taken away from the Original Tongue and transferr'd into another all means of celebrating universal Councils and having any certitude or assurance of matters of Faith would cease For there being no certitude of the genuine sense of Scripture by our particular Interpretation since no Interpretation of Scripture is of private inspiration and we having no way left us of resolution with certitude of Faith in debates which rise about Religion upon the meaning of Scripture besides the voice of the Church speaking in General Councils evident it is that whatever it be which takes away from the Church the means of holding General Councils takes away from it all means of deciding the Disputes of Christian Religion with certitude of Faith Cardinal de Richelieu in his Book of Controversies which has been approv'd by the late Mons. Lescot Bishop of Chartres and divers other Divines exceedingly devoted to the Court of Rome acknowledges the same thing Lib. 3. c. 5. p. 424. Since there is saies he no Oecumenical Council which injoyns the use of the Images of the Divine Persons it is evident that 't is no Article of Faith supposing that for the Principle That onely General Councils can frame Articles of Faith Thus we see that the Doctrine of Infallibility which had been promoted by Mons. Duval with some kind of fear and reserve was abandon'd by the most knowing persons of the Church and chiefly by those who defended it against the Hereticks because they would not engage the cause of the Catholick Religion in defence of an Opinion so insupportable and therefore the Favourites of the Roman Court were then contented that this Opinion should pass for problematick onely Whence it came to pass that Mons. Duval who had but just propos'd it in this manner was all his life in so great esteem at Rome that he was look'd upon there as the person in the world who had render'd the greatest services to the holy See and that all the Nuns had order not to doe any thing here without his advice But finding this tentative succeed so happily and that the Iesuites having gain'd the Catholick Universities had fill'd all mens thoughts with this infinite power of the Pope which was highly advantagious to them for the withdrawing of them from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops they no longer remain'd in this moderation They pretended that it was not enough for the French to permit them to say the Pope was infallible but so order'd the matter that no man was suffered to acknowledge him for less They were contented that Mons. Duval should say that it was no matter of Faith to believe the Pope infallible because this reserve was necessary at that point of time for the currenter passage of the Doctrine but having first begun to distribute it in this manner they did not long rest there the design is to make men believe that the Doctrine of the Faculty of Paris opposite to this Infallibility which in Mons. Duval's daies was neither an Errour nor any rash Opinion is since that time though the Church never thought of any change become a manifest Heresie This is what the Iesuites have exceedingly farther'd For 't is about 5 or 6 years past that Father Theophile Raynaud a Iesuite of Lions publish'd a Book with this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ipse dixit to shew not onely that the Pope is infallible but that it is matter of Faith that he is so and by consequent those that doubt of it Hereticks and he treats Mons. Duval very ill in his Book whom in contempt he calls a certain Doctor for his caution in not so openly venting this false Doctrine as a new Article of Faith And because they saw this enterprise of theirs was not punished as it deserv'd growing daily more insolent they proceeded to that extravagant impiety of their Theses of the College de Clermont which is now the object of the indignation of all France daring publickly to maintain even in the midst of Paris it self and in face of the Parliament That the Catholick Truth which opposes the Heresie of the Greeks concerning the Pope's Primacy is That Jesus Christ has given to all Popes the very same Infallibility which himself had not onely in Questions de Jure but in those also de Facto By this 't is visible to what their boldness may aspire if not timely prevented and repress'd and what progress these monstrous Opinions are like to make to the total destruction of the Liberties of the Gallican Church so precious to our Ancestors unless we be more vigilant in stopping its carreer And in earnest it is very hard it should not be so if we but consider a little those three Expedients which the abettors of the Court of Rome make use of to establish their Maxims The First is the Company of Iesuites spread over the face of the Universe and got to be Masters of the greatest part of the Colleges so as all the World being imbu'd with these Principles from their infancie as 't were Opinions not advantageous to the Church but the Court Politick of Rome they are receiv'd with respect as if they constituted a part of our Religion so as it is quite against the hair of any other because the Iesuites accustom those who have once plac'd their belief in them to look upon men as persons suspected of their Faith who in this are not of their opinion There is the hands of many persons a Treatise of the late Father Eustachius Gault a very knowing and pious Father de l' Oratoire nominated by the late King for Bishop of Marseilles wherein he mentions how dangerous it is for this very reason lest all the Colleges should in time and by degrees fall into the hands of the Iesuites The Second means is the care they take concerning Books blasting all that they find containing any thing of the ancient Maxims of the School of Paris suppressing them all that they can or at least so ordering the matter as to retrench whatever is not in their favour as they have done by a large Discourse of Guicciardin treating of the politick Incroachment of the
against the Lord and against his Anointed That is to say The Pope is Iesus Christ and all Christian Kings who maintain their Sovereignty against the Usurpations of Rome are the Herods and the Pontius Pilates This publick decry yet in the Books of these Writers is nothing so considerable as the particular and clandestine traverses that the Court of Rome excites upon all occasions whatsoever against those whom she believes not favourable to her Interests By that it is she stops the mouths and stays the Pens of almost all Learned persons who cannot really possess themselves of that Title that they are not inwardly persuaded of the Hypocrisies of these ambitious pretensions but they chuse rather to be silent then to speak of it Because there are but a very few persons so in love with Truth as in resolving to maintain it will endure to be tormented and barretted all their life-time and to be torn in pieces when they are dead They see that Kings and their great Ministers take not for the most part that care to protect those who maintain and defend their Right by some testimony of their acknowledging it as the Court of Rome does to persecute them or at least to deny them all kind of favour They must be touch'd with an extraordinary Zeal and very disinteress'd to surmount all these considerations and to sacrifice themselves for the Interest of their Prince and Countrey without any hope of advantage or to speak more properly with reason to apprehend all sort of disadvantage by it All those principally who are ty'd to any Community are thereby oblig'd to a silence which they believe to be just as holding themselves responsable for the conservation of their Body And 't is true these vast Bodies have stricter bonds which tie them to Rome and are more expos'd to Persecution because they have more places which expose them to seisure to which one may adde that almost all the Religious and Communities have their Generals resident at Rome who will never permit that the Divines of their Orders should undertake to teach things which would not be well receiv'd there and from which there may lie a grudge against the whole Order They are therefore Private persons onely who are fit upon these encounters to engage for the Truth but then it is necessary that they be furnished with Light to know it with Zeal to love it with Steadiness not to fear the ills it may produce and with Sincerity and Disinterest that so they may have no occasion to be in danger of being thwarted And when there were onely this last how rare a thing it is to be found Well therefore has Iohn Major that renowned Doctor of Paris long since observ'd That it was not to be wonder'd at if they were fewer who declared for a Council then for the Pope since Councils met but seldom and gave no Benefices whereas the Pope does and thence 't is saies he men flatter him with an omnipotent power as well in Spiritual things as temporal Hinc homines ei blandiuntur dicentes quòd solvere potest omnia quadrare rotundata rotundare quadrata tam in Spiritualibus quà m in temporalibus Hence it proceeds that the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the ancient Maxims of the Sorbon are now-a-daies hardly vindicated but by secular persons such as We that have less relation to the Court of Rome then Ecclesiasticks have whereof the wisest of them are rather satisfied to approve them in their heart without defending them in their Books such power have fear and interest upon the spirit of those who should be more free from them by the Sanctity of their Profession But if there be persons disinterested so as not to be touch'd by these temporal considerations it often falls out that having little judgment and less science their Piety it self engages them into these new Opinions because they are publish'd in the World under this artificial veil That 't is forsooth to violate and wound Religion to contest the Pope's Infallibility and temporal Sovereignty over Kings Those in the mean time who have no relation to it but this pretext without any mixture of humane interest may easily be disabus'd if once they but consider that the most pious of all our ancient Doctors as the illustrious Gerson wihtout mentioning Dionysius the Carthusian and the blessed Cardinal d' Arles have oppos'd with greater vigour those ambitious pretences of the Court of Rome and that they have judg'd that on the contrary 't is the sincere Zeal for the Catholick Religion which ought to oblige all judicious Divines courageously to resist this temporal Superiority over Kings and Infallibility as two inseperable Maxims one from the other either of them capable to raise very great mischiefs to the Church For in effect what is there more opposite to the real benefit of the Catholick Religion then this Doctrine of the Pope's Superiority over Kings in Temporals which is a necessary consequence of Infallibility and of the power which they give him to depose them Is not this to render Religion abhorr'd and suspected of all Princes as the Sorbon has judiciously remark'd in the Censure of Santarel to give them cause to believe that 't is impossible they should have Subjects at the same time good Catholicks and faithful to their King What Infidel Prince indeed would permit men to preach Faith in the Countries under his obedience if he knew that all those who embrace it think themselves by that dispens'd with for obedience to him farther then another Sovereign pleases who can at any time cause them to take up arms against their lawful King Were this for example a proper expedient to incline the Americans to receive our Faith to say to them as some Spaniards did that the Pope had bestow'd their Country on the King of Castile And however Barbarians as they were had they not reason to reply as they did That they knew no such thing as a Pope but that if there were he must needs be a wicked man to give away that which was none of his own Were not this also to dispose Heretical Princes not to suffer Catholicks in their States when they shall behold them but as so many subjects to another Prince who has power to command them to depose him in the Country where they live And do not we know that 't is this has so imbitter'd the King of England against the Papists and the almost sole cause of the disturbance which they suffered in Iames's time as being to this day the greatest obstacle to the progress of Religion in that Kingdom In fine what Catholick Prince would be willing that his Dominion which he takes so much pains to preserve both in Peace and War should continually depend upon the judgment of one sole Person who may be possess'd perhaps by his Enemies or transported by his proper passions For 't is a weak confidence to resolve they will give the Pope no occasion